The Puranam Of Manakkancharar

(mAnakkanchARa nAyanAr purANam - Periyapuranam as English poetry)

"I am a servitor to the servitors of the munificient lord,
Manakkancharar endowed with hill-like shoulders."

-The Tiru-th-Tonda-th-Tokai.

1. Down the branches flows honey (from bee-hives);
From fruitage rich and ripe, oozes juice and runs a stream;
From fields flows the juice of sweet-canes and merges
With the river making it fragrant; such is Kanjaroor -
Where abides willingly the Lord who sports
On His crimson crest the celestial Ganga --,
Hailed for its renown by bards
Who have conned the true way from great texts. (866)

2. Escaping the weeding done by farmwives
Whose eyes are like lilies blue,
And well fed with rich water
The red lilies burgeon rubicund;
Before these soft water-blooms
The long sheaves of paddy bow their heads;
Such are the fields there, rich in soil and water. (867)

3. On the napes of their necks cascade their koontals
Which are black like rain-clouds; their hips sway
And their soft mien is like that of the pea-fowl;
Thus throng thither the farmwives whose visages
Excel the full moon whose beauty is marred by
The dark hare-like shape; in pools and ponds thither,
Sport strong cars which are like their eyes;
The vast fields of Kanjaroor are full of paddy sheaves. (868)

4. The paddy sheaves that grow in the cool miry fields
Reach the green necks of areca trees that grow thick
By the fence, and circle their fruit-bunches;
Thus they resemble the curved sickles of farmers. (869)

5. The town is girt with forted walls inlaid with
Bright multicoloured stones; in platforms and pavilions
Waft streamers; thither could be eyed lovely lasses;
There are on the way, places that would the senses enchant;
Festoons and water-filled pots deck the down. (870)

6. Thither danced jeweled damsels, whose mien rivalled
That of pea-fowls, and mridangams resounded
In unison with their steps; thus the streets of the town
Were full of festivity; its residents were prosperous men,
Householders of rectitude who pursued husbandry and dharma. (871)

7. For the thriving of the family that from generation
To generation holds the office of the King’s General,
He made his holy avatar; he had contemplated
And come by the True Ens; he was the treasure unfailing
Of the Velala-clan; lofty and sublime was he;
He was called Manakkancharar. (872)

8. Humility was his form; he was blessed with the beatitude
-- And it never suffered any diminution --,
Of servitorship to the Lord whose matted hair
Is adorned with the adder and the crescent cool.
His duty was to render all service to the resolute devotees
That were solely devoted to the feet of the Lord. (873)

9. He prospered in peerless wealth, and such wealth
Was by him ear-marked for the ever-blessed devotees
Of the Lord-Brahmin in whose matted hair the Ganga flows;
Before even they would express their wish he would
Divine it already and ply them with gifts. (874)

10. Thus he throve on this earth girt with the ocean-stream,
As a lamp unto all the world;
For some years no child was born to him who knew not
Of the ignorance of the Lord’s feet unknown to Vishnu;
He prayed to God for the gift of a child, prompted by Grace. (875)

11. By the grace of the Dancing Lord from whose ears
Dangle ear-rings, his wife who could command
Even the descent of rain, bore him a daughter
Who could deliver them from the fettering cycle
Of birth and death bred by deeds. (876)

12. The hoary town swam in the joy generated by
The birth of the child; auspicious organs resounded;
Those that stood poised in the way of the Lord of gods
Were loaded with gifts; the nurses blessed their ward,
And she grew like an auric liana. (877)

13. The babe crossed the tender parva of kappu;
The soft curly hair of the babe was decked with
Pretty little flowers buzzed over by bees;
Her locks and ear-rings of gold dangled together;
A bijou girdle of gems cinctured her slender waist;
She was dressed in a little skirt, and as she plied
Her tender feet soft as small shoot,
Her kinnkini chimed and her skirt rustled. (878)

14. She was in the midst of nurses whose fostering hands
Were soft like flowers; she played in the courtyard
Of the house, building beauteous toy-houses of sand;
She played kazhal and other games to the tinkling
Of her anklets filled with grains of gems;
Thus the ambrosial child reached the first parva
Of girlhood when tender breasts began to bud. (879)

15. (Years rolledy by.) Her form external blazed with lustre;
Her waist languished under the big burden of her breasts;
Her teeth were fragrant buds and her smile was pearly.
Cool were her locks; now became nubile the girl
Who hailed from the flawless family. (880)

16. She excelled Lakshmi; she was like a lamp of ruby;
Aged men of wisdom came there seeking her peerless hand
For Yeyarkon of heroic anklet -- a servitor of the Lord who is
The blue throated Brahmin --,
Who hailed from the Velala-clan and family of equal renown. (881)

17. Manakkancharar in the fitting way traditional
Received them; he heard their proposal for marriage
And said: “This is in keeping with our clan’s way.”
Thus he gladly consented and gave them leave to depart. (882)

18. They returned and conveyed Kancharar’s consent;
Yeyarkon of hill-like shoulders grew glad;
Wise men versed in astrology fixed the day for matrimony
Befitting the families of both. (883)

19. The father of the bride, a prince of patrons,
Gladly engaged himself in auspicious acts;
To the great delight of his vast kith and kin
Her reared palikais in rows of beauteous wares;
The hoary town dight with melliferous gardens
Was duly decorated for the connubium. (884)

20. Kancharar was to give his daughter in wedding
And Kalikkamar of boundless glory, the chief
Of the Yeyar family was to hold her hand with his,
In solemn acceptance; for this, with his kith and kin
Thronging thick to the accompaniment
Of musical instruments he proceeded to and neared
Kancharoor girt with flowery gardens cloud-capped. (885)

21. Before even the wedding party neared Kancharoor,
To the house of the father of the bride of flowery eyes
Decked with bright jewels, through a peerless way
Came He, the Lord of gods that ever abode
In the heart of Kancharar, that the redemption
Of the earth girt with billowy seas, may meet with fruition. (886)

22. Triple stripes of the Holy Ash flashed from his forehead;
The tuft on His tonsured head was decked with
A wreath of bone-beads; His ears bore dangline kundala
Wrought of pearls very like the ones carved out
Of the skeleton of the one whom He bore. (887)

23. He wore a long dangling chain of bright-beads
Of that bone; instead of the fierce serpent whose mouth
Holds sacs of venom, He wore a band on His shoulders;
For his sacred thread He wore a thread of human hair;
He also had a pouch of the Holy Ash that could end
The cycle of birth and death of pure-hearted devotees. (888)

24. He wore on one wrist a thread which held a bone-bead;
Over His Kovanam woven of the rare Gospels, He wore
A fitting and beauteous garment; His ineffable feet
Did touch the earth and on the soles thereof, were (visible)
The divine pentad of signs. (889)

25. His frame divine was smeared thick with the Holy Ash;
It was like unto ashes veiling the burning fire within;
Passing through the streets where streamers wafted
He entered the house divine of Manakkancharar
Whose heart enshrines His cool lotus-feet divine. (890)

26. He beheld the Mavrita Muni who arrived thus;
The great servitor, in delight great, moved to his presence
And with a mind with joy surcharged, said:
“I stand redeemed by your coming, who are verily
My Lord-Father of askesis.” With a mind
Melting in love, he bowed before Him. (891)

27. The Lord of great askesis addressing the goodly devotee
Questioned him thus: “What auspicious function
Here takes place?” Him he replied thus: “The wedding
Of my only daughter is to take place here.”
Then the tapaswi great blessed him thus:
“May auspicious weal attend thee.” (892)

28. He prostrated at the feet of Him whose form
Was that of Gnosis as well as Tapas, and went into the house;
Manakkancharar returned with her whose koontal
Was decked with honey-laden flowers and who shone
In bridal splendour; he caused her bow before Him
That stood there concealing His blue throat. (893)

29. He looked at the flowery koontal which was
Dark and dense like the rain-cloud, of her
Who bowed at His feet and rose up;
Addressing the adoring servitor He said:
“The hair of this beauteous belle can serve Us as
Panchavati.” Thus spake He, the bestower of grace to devotees. (894)

30. The moment He spake thus, he unsheathed from
His scabbard the sword, and thought thus:
“I am indeed truly endowed”, and sheared away
From its base the hair – dark as night --,
Of his flowery daughter, and extended it into
The flowery hands of Him who stood before him
And who is the breaker of the cycle of transmigration. (895)

31. He, the God of the Gospels who stood there as if
He would receive it, anon disappeared.
He reappeared in the heavens, with His Consort
On His Mount, the ancient Bull, ever-young.
Earth and sky were mantled with a shower
Of beauteous Karpaka flowers; the servitor
Adored and prostrated before the divine presence. (896)

32. When the tranced servitor true, rose up, the Lord-Dancer
In whose crest floats the crescent as if tossed by
The billows of the Ganga, spake thus: We have caused
The flourishing worlds to know of the love that soars
In you for Us.” Then He graced Him. (897)

33. Manakkancharar was blessed with the beatitude
To hail the Lord, with hands folded above his head
In adoration with at-one-ment; he could thus
Adore the Lord enthroned on His mount, the Bull,
And hailed close by, by Gananatas and thronging gods. (898)

34. Thus gracing the devotee and hailed by the celestials,
The Lord-God, the wearer of chapler, grew invisible.
To hold her hand in wedding, the liana-like bride
Whose fragrant koontal is buzzed over by bees,
And delighting the eyes of the wedding-guests
Thither came Yeyarkon Kalikkamar. (899)

35. The prince of Yeyar clan heard from them
That had gathered thither of the inconceivable phenomenon
And grew mighty glad;
He hailed the gracious act of the Lord and grew sad;
He heard of the Lord’s blessing (900)

36. And was cured of his languishment; he wedded her,
The liana-like, whose Koontal grew with flowers and all
As before by the grace of the God of the celestials;
He gifted great sums of money to all, causing
The glory of the wedding to spread throughout the world;
With his vast kin, he hied back to his hoary forted town. (901)

37. Does it lie in my power to indite his glory
Who gifted the koontal of his only daughter peerless
On the very day of her wedding to the One (supreme)?
I now proceed to narrate the glory of him who was
Blessed to hear the sound of the biting by the Lord
Of tender mango that slipped into the fissure in a field. (902)

11 2&3 cf. “No god adoring, low she bends before her lord;
Then rising, serves: the rain falls instant at her word.”

- Kural 55.

13 Parva of Kappu : This period commences at the end of the second
month of the child.

6-8 Refer to the period when the child ceases to toddle and begins to
walk gently.

14 7 This period of life is called ‘petai-parva’. The girl is now seven
years old.

22 Kundala : Dangling ear-ornament(s).

At the grand Dissolution of the Cosmos, worlds and
all are resolved into Maya, Maya into Sakti and Sakti
into Siva. The Lord alone remains. In His unqiue
aloneness, He is described as Gangaalar, the One
decked with the skeletons, of Vishnu and Brahma.

5 The one : Vishnu.

24 5 The whorls on the soles of feet bore the marks of lotus, chank, fish, disc
and staff.

29 Panchavati : The sacred thread woven of hair.

30 3 Endowed : Endowed with rare wealth.

Sincere thanks to Sri. T N Ramachandran of thanjavur, for permitting his English rendering of the holy text periyapurANam be published here.